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A Journey of Self-Love (Part 2).

After all the treatments with the spa and delicious healthy foods, we gathered in small groups for workshops and a deeper sharing session, coached by Martina Fink, Switzerland-based beauty and life coach. She explained what is the meaning of self-love and skin confidence. What defines a beautiful woman inner and out, what a true Cetaphil woman means.

We had a heart-to-heart sharing session and it was very insightful. To be gathered around with 14 women, all around Asia, all in my age range and have been involved in beauty and fashion field for quite some time. All of them are so beautiful and seems flawless. But after the session, we found out that we've all experienced what every teenagers are facing; the skin crisis, breakouts, how some of us got bullied for having severe acnes or other skin problems that won't go away. Appearance is one of the biggest concern in every girl's life growing up, and it can be tough. It affects our body image and confidence. What we feel becomes what we are. We grew up with insecurities, and people's judgement matters the most. We no longer value ourselves and we tend to listen to other people's comments as a reflection of ourselves.

In this journey, Cetaphil encouraged us to fix what went wrong in our mindset about being beautiful. It's not about fixing what's already there; some people want fair skin, some people want tanned skin. I had these freckles on my face since I was a kid and I grew up believing it's not pretty; I want a flawless skin. But turns out the ladies I met here thought my freckles is pretty and it's a uniqueness I should embrace.

Self-love is about taking care of what we have. Treating ourselves good from the inside. That's what Cetaphil has taught us for these whole 3 days, with healthy foods and lifestyle. Loving yourself and enjoying life doesn't mean eating anything you want, but taking care of our body responsibly. Healthy lifestyle is not always torturing. My personal commitment after going back from this trip, I managed to do a jogging and sit-up routine everyday, and also signed up for Muay Thai class. Such a big improvement from zero work-out to finally having an everyday work-out routine. That's self-love. :)

For my skin-confidence commitment, my self-love is proven by:
- Finding out what product fits my skin condition.
- Learning to read the ingredients of every product carefully.
- Always put on moisturiser and anti-UV A & B every morning before going outside the house(from what I just learned from the workshop, UV A and B is more dangerous than I thought and it really can't be ignored.)
- Not lazy to remove my make-up and clean my face twice daily.
- Drink plenty of water (I have a big bottle of water beside me as I'm writing this post… yasss to discipline!)

In the workshop, we were asked to write down our insecurities and what we felt about ourselves. After that, we wrote down an appreciation list for everyone in our group.

A heart-felt note written for me by Kristin, my dear Filipino friend in the group.

On the last day, we set up a pool party as a farewell *sobs*. We shared so many personal stories through out the whole workshop session that it felt like we already bound so close.

Kristin and Rachelle from Philippines, Haniz, Charis and Emily from Malaysia, and Clara.

My precious girls! :)

CANCER GIRLS SQUAD!

We even celebrated birthday together! Toey and Amy from Thailand, Charis and Marlene from Malaysia, Jamie from Singapore, turned out they shared birthday in the same week :) We celebrated it with a *gluten-free* chocolate birthday cake!

One last hug before going home :( ...Aaand I got caught on picture holding the leftover brownies from last night. Classic, Sonia.

I got so many positive vibe from this trip, it's some kind of revelation that I'm the only person responsible for my own happiness. It inspired me to write this post according to how this three-days journey affecting my personal life after break-up, on my way back from Philippines. I felt so lucky to meet the most beautiful, creative, and kind ladies. They comforted me and we make each other stronger by not being afraid of sharing our vulnerabilities, as our experience can be an inspiration for all other girls. Thank you, girls, for being beautiful inside and out.

Here are some valuable points I learned and I will always remind myself as I got home from this trip. It's a good mantra I'd like to share with you, all my beautiful readers, as well:

Love yourself.

Appreciate yourself.

Know what's best for you.

You're beautiful, and do not let anyone make you feel any other way.

Treat yourself good because you deserve it.

♥

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